body and interior Extra Material On New Hood Vs. Old One - Just Going To Grind It Off

[02tom]

New hood has extra material in the center. Appears to have extra "wings" compared to the old one. Probably will just take off the extra to avoid contact with the cowl, but just wanted to see if anyone else may have seen this before?

Edited March 4, 2014 by 02tom

[bnam]

The hood on my car looks like your new one.  Don't grind it off yet.  Perhaps your old one is not correct (or repaired)?

 

 

B

[02tom]

Well, it's already put a chip in the paint on the cowling over the heater box. Otherwise I'd leave it alone. I don't even have the hood latch on yet, so there may be even more tension put on that area when pulled down

The original hood was off of a '74, if it makes any difference. I don't remember seeing a hood like yours until I got the new on...

Edited March 4, 2014 by 02tom

[bnam]

The hood on my '74 is off another '74 (possibly '75).  I have a hood from a 73 in my garage -- I can check that too.

 

I thought the purpose of the those wings is to keep water off the heater fan motor.  Perhaps it is inconsequential to that.

 

Do you have the bumpers on the rear sides of the hood attached?  The rubber bumper on the latch loop in the center? And the rubber seal that goes crosswise?

 

B

[TR]

Here is a pic of my 73 center hood latch.  It still has the black rubber bumper on the latch and also the bumper near the edge of the hood that rest in the rain gutter.

 

TR 

 

[bnam]

Looks like the shape changed from '73 to '74.  In either case, test with all the rubber and bumpers on before deciding whether there is real interference.

B

[02tom]

B, I hadn't thought of a design improvement of keeping water off the blower motor, but that seems a good possibility

I would not have cared anything about the difference if it hadn't made contact with the cowling even without all the rubber in place. That old hood won't make contact even if you try to force it. I guess I'll just have to take it slow and see what happens with the seals in place. I would hate to remove something that could be an improvement

Edited March 4, 2014 by 02tom

[LarsAlpina]

There are at least 4 different types of hoods over the different years of make I´ve seen as far as the inner frame part is concerned. I remember two for the cars before the improvements on the front crash-collapsible zones (maybe one more type on the real early cars) and there are also min. two for the cars after the improvement.

There are also three types for the locking mechanism AFAIR: real early cars plus move inside lever forward for opening plus move lever backwards for opening.

 

Always thought all hoods (except real early ones) are basically interchangable and never had any probs yet with the area you mention (maybe I was just lucky by chance???) so I´m not exactly sure on that. Can look up among my storage when I´m there next time.

 

Regards, Lars.

Edited March 5, 2014 by LarsAlpina

[Mike Self]

Neither my '69 nor my '73 (both with original hoods) have that piece...I think it's meant to allow the hood to buckle in the middle in a front end collision.  If you examine later hoods (sometime in 1971/2) you'll notice some indents on the inner side framework about midway from front to back.  This will cause the hood to bend in the middle in a severe front end collision--but only if it's firmly anchored at the windshield end.  I believe those brackets will dig into the edge of the rain gutter at the windshield's base so as to cause the desired buckling effect.  

 

Early cars without those hood indents could have the hood go straight back through the windshield in a front end collision.  The similar indents in the inner fender well tops on later cars (my '69 doesn't have 'em) are also meant as crumple zone initiators.  

 

mike

[02tom]

Just an update to my original question: With all the gaskets in place, it's looking like the hood will be okay as is. It made contact without the gaskets in place to the cowling center piece and I thought that it was not going to work as is.

I never would have guessed a "crumple zone initiator", but that makes the most sense for a change in this area of the hood.